Back in December 2021, Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, suggested assigning USD 50 million from the budget for fiscal year 2022 – 2023 to finance Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation. If this initiative generated early income, he was ready to consider increasing the funding.
According to the tourism agency, in the first quarter of 2022, Florida had about 36 million visitors. This number was expected to easily break the record of the same three-month period in 2020 – 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, but the number of tourists surpassed even Q1 2019 performance.
As the numbers show, there was a 1.3% first-quarter growth compared to 2019, a 19.3% growth compared to 2020, and a 39.6% growth compared to 2021. The efforts of attracting foreign visitors to the Sunshine State are still in progress, though, since 95% of first-quarter tourists came from other US states. The situation is expected to change by the end of the year, when more countries lift travel restrictions.
2.28 million foreign tourists visited Florida in the first quarter of 2019. This number dropped to 1.76 million in 2020 and to 492,000 last year. In the first quarter of 2022, it rose to 1.32 million.
American and foreign tourists usually rent local houses and apartments. This trend is good news for owners of Florida real estate. Investors increasingly decide to invest money in the state’s residential properties to receive a stable rental income.